RS

MEMBER DIARY

It Looks Like Michigan

Almost two years ago, just after Obama won the 2008 Presidential election, I posted a short blurb here at Redstate referencing an article written by someone who I think is among the brightest bulbs in the marquee – Philip Greenspun of MIT. I’d like to briefly reprise that article here. With the benefit of almost two years of hindsight, it stands as one of the most clear-headed descriptions of the problems America is currently facing. Imagine, someone actually attempting to treat the moribund economy as a problem to be solved instead of a disaster to be pushed down the road, onto the backs of our children and grandchildren.

It’s also a prescriptive essay, but precious few of the prescriptions have been followed by our current government. I think it’s time they were.

When I read it back in 2008, I understood two things right away. The first was that Greenspun had accurately described the situation, as well as the steps we needed to take to ameliorate it and turn it around. The second was that he published it just after Obama was elected because he had a hunch that none of those steps would be taken. As a result, the essay stands as one of the most prescient observations on the American economy I’ve read in my lifetime. I invite you all to read it again now, while thinking about it in the context of the decisions made at the Federal level in the past two years.

With the midterm elections coming up, I don’t think there’s a more important time or a more important subject. If the United States doesn’t begin to heed this advice – and there is no sign that anyone in the Obama Administration is capable of doing so – the future of America for the next ten years does indeed Look Like Michigan.